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Remote Notification Setup

The Ponemah application supports the sending of an informational Email Alert for two types of conditions by using Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).

One of the email alerts is for parameters that go into an alarm condition during acquisition. The alarm thresholds can be set by the user and are updated for every logging period. The user has the ability to set a time, in minutes, that set the frequency of the alerts.

This will help prevent sending many email alerts for an alarm if the logging period is set for a short duration but the user would only want to be notified of the alarm condition every 30 minutes. With the delay of sending emails this helps prevent a non-physiological event from sending multiple alarms with a short duration logging period.

The second type of email alert is for an application failure. The application failure would be for Data Buffer Overflows.

Data Buffer Overflows occur when an application uses many of the resources of the system and starves the Ponemah application from processing incoming data, such as when a virus checker starts scanning. The processing of this data gets too far behind and causes the failure which then sends out an email alert allowing the issue to be addressed.

As email alerts are sent out, these actions are also logged in the Ponemah Application log.

Email Alert Configuration

To setup the Email Alert notifications, the first step is to setup the Email server that will be used to allow sending the emails, the recipient addresses to which the alerts will be sent and setting up the desired alarm conditions to trigger the alerts.

If using the Data Security option, the Email Alert setting must be in the users Access Level Available Features otherwise the menu will not be accessible.

If you are using an account that requires a password change, be sure to update the password used in this configuration.

Figure 1

Email Server Configuration

Depending on the email server that will be used to send the email alerts, the configuration can be accomplished by setting the appropriate fields to match the server configuration. In certain cases, such as for Exchange Server, specific configuration settings may be needed to allow access. If you are unsure of settings, please contact your IT systems administrator. See Appendix 1 for typical Exchange Server configuration.

Email Server: This field should have the name of the email server that will be used for sending the emails. In the above example mail.company1.com would be email server that would be authenticated against with the provided logon credentials to send the email.

Port: This is the SMTP host port that is used and defaults are listed below. If the email server uses a different port, that specific port number should be entered in this field.

Logon Name and Password: These fields contain the email address and password of the user that will authenticate the email communication connection.

NOTE: this email address will be the one used in the From field of the sent email.

Alarm Alerts

The user can choose to have the alarms generated from out of limit derived parameters to send a detailed email of the alarm condition. This only works when the application has alarms defined in the protocol.

Enabled: This allows the user to enable or disable the sending the email alerts when using alarms.

Delay between notifications (min): The system has the ability to set a time-delay, in minutes, between consecutive alerts triggering an email notification to be sent out. For example, if the time-delay is set to 1 minute and Ponemah is logging data every 10 seconds, then when a parameter is in an alarmed condition for 3 consecutive logging periods, 30 seconds, Ponemah will only send out one email notification instead of three notifications.

Email Alarms To: This field contains the recipients email addresses that will receive the alarm email alert. Multiple names can be entered separated by a comma or semicolon.

Test Alarm Email: Click this button to test the configured mail server and send a test email to the recipients listed. The email subject will be Test Email along with the body of the email containing Ponemah workstation serial number.

This will save the current configuration even if Cancel is used to exit Application Configuration.

For failures see Appendix 2.

Note: Invalid email addresses will be ignored and no warning is posted.

Application Failures

The user can choose to have an email notification sent to them for alarms generated from certain application failures.

Enabled: This allows the user to enable or disable the sending the email failures.

Email Failure To: This field contains the recipients email addresses that will receive the failure email alert. Multiple names can be entered separated by a comma or semicolon.

Test Failure Email: Click this button to test the configured mail server and send a test email to the recipients listed. The email subject will be Test Email along with the body of the email containing Ponemah workstation serial number.

This will save the current configuration even if cancel is used to exit Application Configuration.

For failures see Appendix 2.

Note: Invalid email addresses will be ignored and no warning is posted.

Typical Alarm Email

Figure 2 below displays a typical email that is received for an alarm condition.

Figure 2

Appendix 1 - Typical Exchange Server Configuration

The following is a list of items to check in Exchange Server in order to use the Email Alert feature in Ponemah.

E-Mail Server

The value entered in ‘Email Server’ is typically the same URL used to access email from a web browser. When you connect to email from a browser, please note if the URL starts with HTTP or HTTPS. If you see HTTPS you will need to check the box ‘Enable SSL’, this will ensure the proper authentication is used.

This is the network password for the account you entered in the ‘Logon name’ field. Be sure to update this password when you change you network password, as your alerts will stop working and can result in locking that network account from accessing any other network resources (files, folders, email, intranet, etc.).

If you are unable to successfully send a Test Alarm email, please contact your IT Administrator to confirm your settings, and that this machine is allowed to relay messages.

Appendix 2 - Email to Text

To send the email notification as a text message, add the message recipients’ 10 digit mobile phone number followed by their cell phone carrier’s domain to the Email Alarms/Failures To field.

AT&T – phonenumber@txt.att.net

Verizon – phonenumber@vtext.com

T-Mobile – phonenumber@tmomail.net

Sprint PCS – phonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com

Virgin Mobile – phonenumber@vmobl.com

US Cellular – phonenumber@email.uscc.net

Nextel – phonenumber@messaging.nextel.com

Boost – phonenumber@myboostmobile.com

Alltel – phonenumber@message.alltel.com

Metro PCS – phonenumber@mymetropcs.com

SunCom – phonenumber@tms.suncom.com

Please contact your specific carrier if not listed. It is recommended to send a Test Email to the phone to confirm messages will be received prior to starting a study.

Appendix 3 - Troubleshooting

Email Server Name Not Found

This occurs when the email server that is being used to cannot be located in the network. Possible causes are:

Server name is not valid.

No network connection to the server.

Route to the server cannot be found.

Recommendation:

Ensure you have a network connection.

Confirm the Email Server with your IT Administrator.

Email Send Failure

This type of error may occur for the following reasons:

Bad or invalid email address entered into the Email To field(s).

The outgoing Email server is not allowing an email message to be relayed to another server.

Recommendation:

Ensure all email addresses entered in the Email To field(s) are accurate.

Confirm that you have the correct value entered for Figure 1. Email Server.

Check with your local IT Administrator to ensure the computer configured to send alerts is allowed to relay emails and that the Email Server being entered is correct.